American Literary Movements - Key

takeaways

 The first American literary movement was pre-Colonial

Native American literature.

 Puritan literature focused on religious teachings and

non-fiction accounts of daily life.

 Writers of Colonial literature described life in the

colonies for those back home in Europe and Great
Britain.

 Revolutionary and Early National authors focused on

political ideas.

 Romanticism was the first truly American literary

movement.

 In the period following the Civil War, Romanticism

gave way to Realism and Naturalism.

 Authors of the Modernism and Experimentation

periods focused on style and point of view in their
writing.

 Modern-day American literature is not defined by any

single literary movement.

Timeline of American Literary

Movements:
The following timeline shows the period of each American
literary movement and its duration.

 Pre-colonial: Native American Literature

 1620-1750: Puritan Literature
 1607-1775: Colonial Literature
 1775-1783: Revolutionary Age
 1775-1830: Early National Literature
 1830-1865: American Romanticism
 1865-1914: Naturalism
 1914-1940: Modernism and Experimentation
 1945- Present: Postmodernism

What is an American Literary

Movement?
The term American literary movement refers to the periods
of evolution in American literature and the characteristics
that literature from different time periods shares.
Factors that unify literature within a particular
movement might include the style of the authors'
writing, common themes or ideas, and the influence
of the era’s social and political climate.

History of American Literary

Movements
The following is a brief history of American literary
movements.

Native American Literature - Early National

Literature (Pre-colonial-1830)
The first recognizable American literary movement is, of
course, the pre-colonial period of Native American
literature. Before the arrival of Europeans in what is
now the United States, Native Americans had a
vibrant literary tradition with a strong focus on oral
storytelling.These stories were of high cultural value,
including creation stories and other myths and folktales.

With the arrival of European settlers, the first period of

English language literature began. As Puritans settled in
New England, they used literature, not for entertainment,
but rather to explore religious themes and biblical
teachings. Puritan literature was generally non-fiction
and included letters, diary entries, and other details
of daily activities.
At the same time, Colonial literature was also developing in
America.Like Puritan literature, the literature of the
Colonial period was mostly non-fiction and geared
towards descriptions of daily life. The major difference,
however, was the religious content of Puritan literature,
while Colonial writers like Captain John Smith focused on
describing the process of colonization for those back home
in Europe and Great Britain.

The American Revolution in 1775 marked the start of the

Revolutionary and Early National literary movements. As
you might guess, this literary movement was strongly
influenced by the development of the new nation
and the fight for independence. As a result, much of
the literature from this period was political in nature. These
texts included political essays discussing the formation of
the new government as well as propaganda pamphlets
supporting the revolutionaries’ cause.

Some of the most important writers of this period were also

well-known political figures, such as Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),
and Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804).
Influenced by the Enlightenment in Europe, American
authors in the Revolutionary and Early National periods
also embraced the literary movement of Rationalism. A
preference for rational thought and deductive reasoning
shaped texts of the era, including The Declaration of
Independence (1776) and Thomas Paine's The Age of
Reason (1794)

American Romanticism and Naturalism (1830-

1914)
1

American Romanticism
The year 1830 marks the beginning of American
Romanticism. This is arguably the first uniquely
American literary movement and gave rise to some
of the most important authors in the history of
American literature. With the American Revolution
behind them, authors in the United States had the
extraordinary opportunity to participate in the process of
nation-building by creating truly American literature.

This was the first time American authors tried to separate

themselves from the literary traditions of Europe and Great
Britain. Authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Herman
Melville wrote novels and poetry inspired by the American
landscape and the ideals of freedom and individuality.
Some of the great American Romantic writers include
Edger Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville,
and Emily Dickenson.
American Romanticism was also the first literary movement
in the United States that split into several sub-movements.
These sub-movements included Transcendentalism, Dark
Romanticism, American Gothic, and the poetry of
the Fireside Poets.
Towards the middle of the 19th century, American
literature began to move away from Romanticism as
authors embraced the literary movements of
Realism and Naturalism. The horrors of the Civil War
had changed the mood of the country and the idealism of
Romanticism was no longer applicable.
Instead, American authors such as Stephen
Crane and Mark Twainsought to depict life as it
really was, even the parts that might have been ugly
or unpleasant. This movement was also exemplified in
the proliferation of slave narratives that were published in
the wake of the Civil War, including Incidents in the Life of
a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Mark Twain became

one of the most important writers associated with the
literary movement known as regionalism or local color
fiction. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
and The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin (1884) paid special
attention to regional specifics, including dialect, landscape,
and customs.

Modernism, Experimentation, and the Modern

Era (1914-Present)
At the beginning of the 20th century, American literature
moved into the Modernist literary movement. Authors
like William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway began
to focus more on the structure and style of writing,
making a conscious effort to break long-established
literary conventions. This evolved into the even more
unconventional movement of Experimental literature, as
well as individual groups of writers, such as Langston
Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston of the Harlem
Renaissance, and Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott
Fitzgerald of the Lost Generation.
The term "Lost Generation" was coined by American writer
Gertrude Stein to describe the generation reaching young
adulthood during World War I. The term was also applied
more specifically to describe the group of expatriate
writers and artists living in Paris in the 1920s, including
Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound.
1
Following World War II, Modernism began to shift into
Postmodernism, a literary movement that eschewed
meaning and embraced disorder and fragmentation.
Postmodern authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K.
Dick wrote playful, distorted texts that often relied heavily
on metafiction and intertextuality.

By the mid to late 20th century, American literature

had begun to resemble the diverse body of work
that we see today. American drama grew in importance,
with the first performances of Tennessee
Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Arthur
Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). American poets as
diverse as Sylvia Plath and Allan Ginsberg established a
variety of literary movements including the San Francisco
Renaissance, New Formalism, the Confessional Poets, and
the Beat Generation.

The urge towards experimentation and the breaking of

literary conventions that began during the Modernist and
Experimental periods continue to influence American
literature, which represents a broad variety of literary
themes, styles, and genres.

Characteristics of American Literary

Movements
The following list explains some of the key characteristics of each American literary
movement.
Native American Literary Movement
 Focus on oral storytelling traditions, songs, and poetry.
 Themes included creation stories, myths, and folktales.
 Examples include trickster myths, often featuring a coyote as the
troublemaker, and creation myths to explain how various aspects of
the world came into being.

Puritan Literature (1620-1750):

 Focus usually on religious subject matter.
 Non-fiction materials, including journal and diary entries or letters.
Literature was not for entertainment but for religious instruction.
 Examples include Of Plymouth Plantation (1651) by William
Bradford and the poetry of Anne Bradstreet.

Colonial Literature (1607-1775)

 Focused on describing the process of colonization and daily life in
the colonies.
 Non-fiction materials that included journal and diary entries or
letters.
 Examples include A True Relation of Virginia (1608) and The
Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer
Isles(1624) by John Smith.

Revolutionary Age (1775-1783)

 Focus on political ideology and the use of literature to further the
cause of independence.
 Popular literary forms included political essays and propaganda
pamphlets.
 Examples include The American Crisis (1776-1783) by Thomas
Paine and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin(1773).
Early National Literature (1775-1830)
 Focus on political ideology and the use of literature to build
national identity.
 Popular literary forms included political essays and most literature
remained non-fiction in nature.
 Examples include the Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
and The Declaration of Independence (1776).

American Romanticism (1830-1865)

 Focus on themes of individualism, the beauty of nature, and
conveying strong emotions.
 A great increase in the writing of novels and poetry.
 Sub-movements of American
Romanticism include Transcendentalism, Dark
Romanticism, American Gothic, and the Fireside Poets.

Transcendentalism

 Focus on the inherent goodness of the individual.

 Individuals can “transcend” the world around them.
 Examples include Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau and the
poetry of Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

Dark Romanticism

 Focus on the fallibility of the individual and the tendency towards

self-destruction.
 Opposite of Transcendentalism: the individual cannot transcend the
world around them.
 Examples include Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville and The
Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

American Gothic

 Focus on the uncanny and macabre.

 Includes the use of supernatural elements such as ghosts and
monsters.
  Examples include the short stories “The Fall of the House of Usher"
(1839) by Edgar Allan Poe and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
(1820) by Washington Irving.

Fireside Poets:

 Focus on themes of domesticity and national identity.

 Used poetic conventions that made their work easy to memorize.
 Examples include William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) and Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

Naturalism (1865-1914)
 Related to Realism and the use of literature to depict everyday life.
 Focus on determinism, including the effects of environment and
circumstance on characters.
 Examples include Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) by Stephen
Crane and To Build a Fire (1902) by Jack London.

Slave Narratives

 Accounts that were written by enslaved Africans detailing their

experiences.
 Focus on simple language to realistically and matter-of-factly
portray the horrors of slavery.
 Examples include A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave (1845) by Frederick Douglass, and Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs.

Modernism and Experimentation (1914-1940)

 Emphasis on style and how a story is told.
 Experimentation with structure and point of view in both poetry
and prose.
 Sub-movements within Modernism and Experimentation include
the Harlem Renaissance and the Lost Generation.
The Harlem Renaissance:
 Focus on the African American experience.
 Experimentation with style and structure.
 Examples include the poetry of Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston.

The Lost Generation:

 Rebellion against established American cultural ideals.

 Themes of disillusionment and critiques of the American Dream.
 Examples include The Sun Also Rises (1926) by Ernest Hemingway
and The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Modern American Prose

 Novels and essays that were published after World War II.
 Authors employ a wide variety of themes and styles to describe the
experience of the contemporary world, usually following the
themes and arguments seen in Postmodernism.
 Examples include To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper
Lee andBeloved (1987) by Toni Morrison.

Modern American Drama

 Emphasis on plays with realistic settings.
 Focus on the depiction of American life and society.
 Examples include A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee
Williams and Death of a Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller.

Modern American Poetry

 American poets use a variety of styles and explore a variety of
themes.
 Sub-movements within Modern American Poetry include the San
Francisco Renaissance, New Formalism, Confessional Poetry, The
New York School, the Beat Generation, the Black Mountain Poets,
and Poetry Slam.
San Francisco Renaissance

 Avant-garde poetry movement based in San Francisco.

 Shunning the poetic mainstream.
 Examples include the poetry of Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) and
William Everson (1912-1994).

New Formalism

 Poetry movement that sought to re-embrace poetic conventions of

the past.
 Poets rejected free verse and instead returned to traditional forms
of rhyme, meter, and verse.
 Examples include the poetry of Charles Martin (1942-present) and
Molly Peacock (1947-present).

Confessional Poetry

 Poetry movement centered on personal poetry.

 Focus on private, intimate themes and personal history.
 Examples include the poetry of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne
Sexton (1928-1974).

New York School

 Poetry movement based in Manhattan.

 Focus on depicting everyday life while embracing humor and
references to popular culture.
 Examples include the poetry of John Ashbery (1927-2017) and Alice
Notley (1945-present).

Beat Generation

 Poetry movement related to the San Francisco Renaissance.

 Focus on questioning social conformity and challenging traditional
literary conventions.
 Examples include the poetry of Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) and Jack
Kerouac (1922-1969).
Black Mountain Poets

 Avant-garde poetry movement based at Black Mountain College in

North Carolina.
 Focus on the use of conversational language and turning away from
poetic conventions of the past.
 Examples include the poetry of Charles Owen (1910-1970) and Larry
Eigner (1927-1996).

Poetry Slam

 Poetry movement that explores the performance of poetry.

 Focus on competition and high-energy performances.
 Examples include the poetry of Taylor Mali (1965-present) and Anis
Mojgani (1977-present).

Frequently Asked Questions about American Literary

Movements
What are the major movements in American
literature?
Some of the major movements in American literature are Romanticism, Naturalism, and
Modernism.
How many literary movements are in American
literature?
There are eight identifiable literary movements in American literature ranging from pre-colonial
Native American literature to the modern era. There have also been numerous sub-movements
within these movements. For example, Transcendentalism is considered a sub-movement of
Romanticism.
What was the name of the American literary
movement?
Each American literary movement has its own name to distinguish it from others. These include
large movements, such as American Romanticism or Naturalism, and smaller movements, such as
the Harlem Renaissance.
What movement in American literature is
experimental?
During the Modernist and Experimental literary movements in the early- to mid-20th century,
authors experimented with the structure of their writing. They considered the way the story was
told to be the most important part of writing. Therefore, these writers experimented with style,
structure, and point of view.
What makes the difference in American literary
movements?
There are many components that separate the different American literary movements. These
include writing style, themes, and the impact of the social and political situation of the era.